


Ghosts of the Past

by unicornsandbutane



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Spooky, metahorror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 05:26:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8274496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unicornsandbutane/pseuds/unicornsandbutane
Summary: Ren had been gone an awfully long time, but the locator Hux had installed in his belt indicated he was staying in roughly the same area. He seemed to be pacing in circles, occasionally doubling back, and it was exceedingly odd behaviour overall. Resigned, he took a small cohort of ‘troopers, and followed Ren’s signal to discover if something had happened to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Huxloween prompt - metahorror

Ren had been gone an awfully long time, but the locator Hux had installed in his belt indicated he was staying in roughly the same area. He seemed to be pacing in circles, occasionally doubling back, and it was exceedingly odd behaviour overall. Resigned, he took a small cohort of ‘troopers, and followed Ren’s signal to discover if something had happened to him.

Stepping out of the shuttle, he remembered why he so rarely went planetside. The ground was damp and loamy, and squished unpleasantly under his boots. They’d need a thorough clean after this, but he dare not think ill about the mission, such as it was, as he’d had orders from Leader Snoke himself to bring Ren here personally. Of course he hadn’t questioned it aloud, but it, like Ren’s illogical circling, did seem… Odd.

The planet, too, was odd. The shuttle had parked in a clearing too precisely cut to be natural, but there was no sign of life anywhere around. The trees were ashen and dry, with twisted branches clawing the sky, and when the bitter wind blew through them, it moaned and rattled. Some of the ‘troopers shifted noisily, foot to foot.

“Stuff and nonsense,” Hux declared. If he didn’t know better he’d think this was all a grand practical joke at his expense. He set off toward the tree line, and the 'troopers necessarily followed after him.

Once under the web of shadows cast by the gnarled forest, it grew harder to find footing. Hux commandeered a torch from one of the 'troopers and kept his eyes fixed intermittency on his locator screen, and the uneven ground.

As such he barely noticed the nature of their destination until they had arrived. Actually, Hux didn’t notice the location so much as the sound of all the stormtroopers halting at once. They all seemed to be staring at the building ahead, again, sat in the middle of a perfectly circular clearing. It was a tall, gawky edifice, hewn from a darker wood than the forest around them. It was collapsing in on itself, giving it a stooped appearance. The windows were bare, any panes they once had long gone, with tattered rags flapping in the wind. A dark shadow passed one of these yawning holes in the facade, and Hux set his sights there.

“Ah, there’s Ren. This shan’t take long.”

There was a rotted veranda around the building, and Hux stepped carefully on the creaking stairs. What in the maker’s name could Ren want in a place like this? There was even an ugly doll in a rocker on the porch. It was probably made O represent a human but with its hair burned off and it’s eyes popped out it didn’t much look it. Whatever rowdy children had lived here were long gone, leaving only the evidence of their violent games behind. That seemed appropriate enough for Ren. Perhaps this was his childhood home?

Stepping into the foyer he certainly hoped not. It had clearly been abandoned for decades, and he didn’t think Ren was old enough for most of the junk cluttering up the ground floor. The 'troopers had fallen behind but he forged ahead, thinking about the weak boards and their heavy armour. Furniture covered in sheets stood silent in a main room, silhouetted against the silvery light through the windows, the sheets billowing. Inspecting these, and the layer of dust on the floor, he surmised Ren hadn’t been through this way.

It would have to be the central stairs then.

He didn’t much trust the steps as they groaned under his weight. Halfway up the stairs he heard the chime of an old-style clock, ringing out the midnight hour. He checked his chrono and noted the clock was either three hours slow, or nine hours fast. He’d never seen a working clock, though, and looked right and left on the landing, trying to find the source of the clanging toll.

While he couldn’t see anything resembling images of clocks he’d seen before, he noted the long corridor that seemed to look exactly the same on either side, down to the paintings of dour-faced people in ugly clothes, mirrored right side to left. These too had their eyes cut out, like the doll out front. Certainly this place had a very… specific design sense.

Directly ahead of him was a door coated with a red lacquer, and he supposed he’d try this one first. His locator was being of no help; this close to the chip it insisted he was right on top of his goal. He clicked his tongue and shoved the device back in his pocket.

Walking into the room with the red door was almost like walking into another house. In fact, it was exactly like walking into another house: his own. The room bore a striking resemblance to his father’s smoking parlour, except for the blacked-out windows and the upside-down wall sconces. Probably the most unusual thing about the room was how untarnished it was. The chairs, the liquor cabinet, the table and rug were all in pristine condition, without even a speck of dust. Though, his father had never read paper periodicals, old fashioned as he may have been, and the low table was stacked with them. Well, clippings, anyway. All the articles had titles like “Local Boy Found Dead in River”, “Local Boy Found Hanged by Neck”, “Local Boy Identified from Dismembered Remains” and the like. All of them featured an image of his Academy ID picture, with the eyes scratched out.

He didn’t think even Ren would go this far to get a rise out of him. Where would he even find natural paper like this? Thus decided, he turned, and sure enough, blocking the door was a skeletal form, shrouded in curling smoke. It’s bones were black as though it had been sunk in a mire. Its eye sockets seeped pitch. It’s jaw hung open in a cruel, uncanny grin as shadows wreathed it, ever-changing.

“Well? What’s all this, then?” Hux asked, clasping his hands behind his back. If Ren had gone through what Hux had, then confronting this creature would likely lead to finding him and getting off this damned rock. He assumed this room was some sort of hallucination, and the creature was a Force user capable of creating them.

It pointed one finger at him, all bones and shadow, and Hux rolled his eyes. “I’ll give you to the count of three to get out of my way and tell me where my associate is, or,” he pulled off a glove and lifted his blaster from its holster, “I will shoot. Is that clear?”

The creature kept its arm outstretched but took one shambling step forward.

“Right then. One,” he warned, bracing his arm.

“Two,” he said, as the creature took another slow step.

“Three.”

Hux fired, and the blaster bolt ripped through the centre of the creature’s form, and it fell, writhing, to the floor. Hux kept his blaster trained on it as it shrieked, and that was when Ren burst in to the room.

Ren surveyed the situation: the lavishly appointed room, Hux staring impassively at the screaming wraith, the creature itself clattering as it struggled.

“What happened?” He asked. He was without his mask and Hux spared but a glance at him.

“What does it look like?” Hux replied. “It was in my way, and I shot it.”

“You can’t shoot a ghost,” Ren countered, despite all visible evidence to the contrary.

“Evidently I can,” Hux answered coolly. “Now do you need anything from this unseemly thing or should I finish it off?” The screaming was growing quite irritating. He never had patience for that sort of thing. It was the same reason he avoided children and small animals. Apparently he would have to add 'wraiths’ to that list.

“My lightsaber did nothing to it,” Ren commented, seemingly put out about it.

“Well, there you are. I told you you wouldn’t always be able to solve your problems with that thing. Oh for kriff’s sake!” The wailing reached a deafening pitch and Hux lost the battle with his patience. He shot it through the head, and it dissipated into nothing but a bizarre little crystal, which seemed to glow black.

“Oh,” Ren said. “That’s what I was looking for.”

“Happy to be of assistance,” Hux answered snidely. He didn’t look or sound happy at all. “Can we get out of this dump? I’d like to scrape this muck off my boots.”

Ren levitated the crystal with the Force, and followed Hux out of the room.

“Do you want to know what this is?” he asked, on the stairs.

“Not particularly,” Hux replied, but Ren told him anyway.

“I believe that creature was the result of a failed attempt at creating a Force ghost.”

“Indeed.” Hux didn’t know or care what a Force ghost was.

“An experiment by Darth Plagius. Darth Sidious was his apprentice. And Darth Vader was his.”

Hux’s eyebrow quirked. Emperor Palpatine was a subject of slightly more interest.

“Obviously none of them succeeded in achieving eternal life.”

“Mmf,” Hux grunted, coming to the bottom of the stairs, and looking around to see if any of the 'troopers had even made it this far.

“But Leader Snoke believes he may be able.”

“Wonderful,” Hux drawled, striding onto the porch. The ugly doll was gone, which to Hux only meant he didn’t have to look at it anymore. There was a beat of silence after Ren came up behind him, stood surveying the grey trees and greyer sky.

“Did it not show you the deepest fears of your heart?” he asked, voice soft.

“What?” Hux scoffed. “Is that what it was trying to do? Stars above, it did a hack job of it,” he pulled his comm from his pocket, sent out a communique to the missing 'troopers to meet him or be left behind. “Whole lot of hocus pocus if you ask me. Unoriginal stuff. I should have liked to have seen something a bit more inventive.” He strode down the stairs, back straight, gait precise and measured.

Ren suddenly realised why the Supreme Leader had sent Hux along with him: the man was almost certainly scarier than anything else Ren was likely to encounter.


End file.
